Tax free Chhattisgarh budget focuses on agriculture
By IANSSaturday, February 26, 2011
RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh presented Saturday a Rs.30,725.96 crore tax-free budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year in the state assembly with its main emphasis on agriculture, veterinary and fisheries sectors.
The total budget amount is about 25 percent higher compared to the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
Amidst repeated interruptions by the opposition Congress members, Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented the budget that lays emphasis on agriculture, veterinary and fisheries sectors.
The sectors get a hike of 37.98 percent for the 2011-2012 fiscal at Rs.1,329.99 crore compared to Rs.963 crore in the 2010-2011 fiscal.
The outlay for the social sector, which includes women and child development, health, tribal welfare and education, was increased to Rs.14,070.50 crore from Rs.10,333.50 crore, which is 36.09 percent rise.
The budget for police department that is battling with rising Maoist insurgency was put at Rs.1,535 crore, which is 35 percent higher than the budget amount allocated in the 2010-2011 fiscal.
Singh, who is heading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government since December 2003, admitted at a press conference later that the state has a debt of Rs.13,010 crore with per capita loan standing at about Rs.6,254.
The Congress has termed the budget a “disappointing one” and said the BJP government has made no provision to pull out the massive tribal and backward population from decades-old poverty.
